Give Me Liberty

Very kind and funny film about 1 day from Vic's life. A lot of unusual characters who wonderfully coexist in one frame. After the movie there is a feeling that everything will be ok.

Vic is of Russian origin and a medical transport driver in Milwaukee. A tiny problem: he is excessively adorable! He wants to please everyone and he is desperately unable to say 'no' even when it's the only correct answer. So, as riots erupt in the city, his day will quickly become nightmarish.

The actors Lauren 'Lolo' Spencer (Tracy), Chris Galust (Vic) and Maksim Stoyanov (Dima) are unknown (from me at least) but excellent. The director Kirill Mikhanovsky shows a deeply moving humanism with regard to these outcasts. An excellent Russian-American surprise!

Give Me Liberty (2019) was co-written and directed by Kirill Mikhanovsky. Chris Galust lays Vic, a young man who drives a medical transport van. Lauren 'Lolo' Spencer portrays Tracy, one of his passengers. Maxim Stoyanov is Dima, a giant of a man who may or may not be what he says he is.

The problem for Vic is that he does more for his clients than just drive them--he's sort of their social worker as well. He also does more for his grandfather's friends, who are older Jewish people from Russia, and who need transportation.

As the van goes careening down the Milwaukee streets, Vic keeps telling the dispatcher "I'm going to Eisenhower." I thought Eisenhower was a highway, but instead it's the Eisenhower Center vocational training program that helps people with disabilities. Some of the scenes are shot within the Eisenhower Center, and they present the clients in a positive and respectful way. That's one of the strengths of the movie.

The film has some funny scenes, but it also has some disturbing scenes of violent interactions between police and protestors. So, although in the very basic sense it's a love story, it's not for everyone.

Give Me Liberty would work well in a theater, but it was OK on the small screen. It has a dismal IMDb rating of 6.6. It's not a great movie, but I thought that rating was too low, and rated it 8.

A perfect surrealistic picture of life as it is. With all its diversity, sadness, happiness, loyalty, compassion and love. A film that moves you and gives you hope, makes you think and reconsider a number of things in life. Ad leaves you with this sweet feeling that in the end of the day love will save us all.

Kirill Mikhanovsky's ambitious film (partially shot on 16mm) follows an eventful day in the life of a young accessibly van driver in Milwaukee. Vic (Chris Galust) is the young Russian immigrant who's daily pickup routine is sidetracked when a group of mostly elderly ex-Soviets need a ride to a funeral of one of their own. Along the way, Vic tries to maneuver his regular riders into the trip but keeps getting sidetracked. LIBERTY seems to be headed into farce territory, but, eventually reveals itself to have much more on its mind. Vic is still looking for what to do with his life. The members of his community may be all lumped together as "Russians", but, as the film amply shows, the old Soviet Union was a collection of different nations, factions and religions (as is the Milwaukee inner city where the story is set). One of the movie's most amusing lines is when the smooth-talking Dima (Maxim Stoyanov) compares the bitter cold Wisconsin weather to Siberia! Mikhanovsky (who co-writes with Alice Austen) is certainly audacious in trying to pack so much into a single day (including a full blown protest turned riot), but, it works more often than not. It's overlong, and certainly over-reaches from time to time, but, it has a cumulative effectiveness. The acting (which includes a good number of debuts) is engaging, particularly Lauren Spencer as one of Vic's riders, the wheel-chair bound Tracy. Despite having a lot on his plate, Mikhanovsky is smart enough to slow down the sometimes frenetic pace to capture the tinniest moments and intimate details. The heart-to-heart talks with a bed ridden elderly man - credited only as 'Vic's Confidant' (James Watson) - form a kind of an eloquent bookend to the film. They anchor the piece, even if the title ends up being more of a question mark (Give Me Liberty?) than a declarative statement.